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Nowhere
"What if the most terrifying thing has already happened?"
Drawn by a mysterious force, 12-year-old Joel and his terrible parents have just arrived in yet another nondescript small town. There's a diner, a movie theatre, a motel, and a bar. But this time, things seem different, especially when suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant cube appears on the edge of town.
And . . . just as Joel starts to make friends and navigate a new school, which is hard enough, Beauséjour is beset by nightly appearances of zombies, demon landlords, therapy-seeking vampires, and depressed clowns. One by one, the citizens of Beauséjour begin to disappear. When his parents vanish, Joel and his friend Charlie seek to shelter themselves from the strangeness all around them.
A hilarious and sinister reflection on growing up in a world where monsters are real, Nowhere is a dreamlike meditation on adolescence and the absurdity of small-town life. Illustrated with Claytor's expressive, richly textured visuals, wildly echoing the offbeat world of Beauséjour, Nowhere signals the arrival of a profound and vital voice.
Drawn by a mysterious force, 12-year-old Joel and his terrible parents have just arrived in yet another nondescript small town. There's a diner, a movie theatre, a motel, and a bar. But this time, things seem different, especially when suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant cube appears on the edge of town.
And . . . just as Joel starts to make friends and navigate a new school, which is hard enough, Beauséjour is beset by nightly appearances of zombies, demon landlords, therapy-seeking vampires, and depressed clowns. One by one, the citizens of Beauséjour begin to disappear. When his parents vanish, Joel and his friend Charlie seek to shelter themselves from the strangeness all around them.
A hilarious and sinister reflection on growing up in a world where monsters are real, Nowhere is a dreamlike meditation on adolescence and the absurdity of small-town life. Illustrated with Claytor's expressive, richly textured visuals, wildly echoing the offbeat world of Beauséjour, Nowhere signals the arrival of a profound and vital voice.
448 pages, Paperback
Published March 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 25, 2026
In Jon Claytor’s 2026 young adult graphic novel Nowhere, twelve year old Joel finds himself permanently stranded with his mother and horridly toxic stepfather in Beauséjour, in a small and for and to him limiting and constricting New Brunswick town that seems to be cursed with every manner of paranormal activity imaginable (zombies roaming the streets at night attacking residents, demonic landlords seeking to squeeze the last dollar out of their tenants, ghostly parents failing to provide much guidance for their children, UFOs, aliens, vampires, various types of monstrous wildlife and last but definitely not least a mysterious white cube, a massive bit of postmodern architecture plopped into a cow pasture that none of the town’s residents can remember having been built and how with said cube, the weirdness, the dystopian horrors began Beuséjour). But while Beauséjour is a fictional town (although the name totally reminds me of New Brunswick history since Fort Beauséjour was an Acadian military post close by to what is now Sackville that was destroyed by the British during the French and Indian Wars) Claytor has quite obviously based his Beauséjour on Sackville, New Brunswick, and with readers of Nowhere who are in any way even remotely familiar with Sackville easily being able to notice especially buildings (or at least, this should in my humble opinion be pretty easy to do).
Therefore and for example, Sue's Diner in Nowhere, is obviously and totally based on Sackville's Mel's Tea-Room, that the Paradise Cinema corresponds to Sackville's Vogue Cinema, that the Motel Beauséjour where Joel and his horrid parents are being shown by as staying looks very much like Sackville's Tantramar Motel, how Joel's school to me resembles Mount Allison University's Hart Hall and that the white cube of Nowhere also exists, being in real life a 2019 constructed cranberry storage silo situated just outside of Sackville (and not to mention how there is a decidedly 1980s vibe present in Nowhere and with Jon Claytor's depictions and descriptions of gangs of zombies etc. roaming the street at night and creating havoc having me recall uncomfortably even if still a trifle nostalgically how in mid to late 1980s, when I attended Mount Allison University, skirmishes and altercations between gangs of so-called Townies and in particular the students of some of the all male university residences were sadly rather common and often got pretty ugly, especially when both groups were grossly intoxicated).
Now while I have found searching for and finding Sackville New Brunswick in Claytor's cartoon like illustrations for Nowhere both massively fun and equally so hugely visually rewarding (as well as being thoroughly and delightfully nostalgic since I absolute loved loved love attending Mount Allison University and getting to know Sackville, New Brunswick), I do have to also admit that both the artwork and the paranormal themes and contents for Nowhere are not really all that much to my personal reading (and visual) tastes in and of themselves (as I simply do not tend to enjoy horror stories and especially not illustrations of zombies, vampires and such all that much). Yes, the combination of Jon Claytor's featured narrative and his images for Nowhere work very nicely together, but his story, but Claytor's actual words are bit too jumpy and far too often all over the place for me, and that both text and pictures are also often just a bit too creepy just for creepiness' sake so to speak, so that while I have found Nowhere decently enjoyable (and in particular regarding the Sackville and Beauséjour correspondences and parallels), I also do not consider Joel and Charlie's story all that engaging and a bit too weird at times for me personally speaking.
And quite frankly, and finally, considering how much bona fide paranormal activity there actually is reputed to exist or to have existed in Sackville, New Brunswick, I do have to wonder why Claytor has not made use of any of this in Nowhere (and that I for one, would have definitely enjoyed encountering in Nowhere Sackville's Marshland Inn and its ghost horses, Mount Allison University's famous ghost Ethel Peake as perhaps Charlie's mother, the uncanny scratching noises emanating from Mount A's tunnels and maybe even the weird phenomenon of common household metal objects projecting radio broadcasts which I myself in fact did briefly encounter in residence at Mount Allison in 1987 when the sink and the refrigerator suddenly started playing music late at night and which was actually due to interference from the intense electromagnetic fields from the Radio Canada International (RCI) shortwave transmitter towers on the Tantramar Marshes outside of Sackville, so nothing paranormal here but still really really strange and freaky).
Three stars for Nowhere, and with my main caveat being that what Jon Claytor textually and visually provides is creepy, is very young adult themed (and that there is also quite a bit of verbal abuse and lots and lots of decidedly vulgar words, of major cursing being textually shown throughout Nowhere).
Therefore and for example, Sue's Diner in Nowhere, is obviously and totally based on Sackville's Mel's Tea-Room, that the Paradise Cinema corresponds to Sackville's Vogue Cinema, that the Motel Beauséjour where Joel and his horrid parents are being shown by as staying looks very much like Sackville's Tantramar Motel, how Joel's school to me resembles Mount Allison University's Hart Hall and that the white cube of Nowhere also exists, being in real life a 2019 constructed cranberry storage silo situated just outside of Sackville (and not to mention how there is a decidedly 1980s vibe present in Nowhere and with Jon Claytor's depictions and descriptions of gangs of zombies etc. roaming the street at night and creating havoc having me recall uncomfortably even if still a trifle nostalgically how in mid to late 1980s, when I attended Mount Allison University, skirmishes and altercations between gangs of so-called Townies and in particular the students of some of the all male university residences were sadly rather common and often got pretty ugly, especially when both groups were grossly intoxicated).
Now while I have found searching for and finding Sackville New Brunswick in Claytor's cartoon like illustrations for Nowhere both massively fun and equally so hugely visually rewarding (as well as being thoroughly and delightfully nostalgic since I absolute loved loved love attending Mount Allison University and getting to know Sackville, New Brunswick), I do have to also admit that both the artwork and the paranormal themes and contents for Nowhere are not really all that much to my personal reading (and visual) tastes in and of themselves (as I simply do not tend to enjoy horror stories and especially not illustrations of zombies, vampires and such all that much). Yes, the combination of Jon Claytor's featured narrative and his images for Nowhere work very nicely together, but his story, but Claytor's actual words are bit too jumpy and far too often all over the place for me, and that both text and pictures are also often just a bit too creepy just for creepiness' sake so to speak, so that while I have found Nowhere decently enjoyable (and in particular regarding the Sackville and Beauséjour correspondences and parallels), I also do not consider Joel and Charlie's story all that engaging and a bit too weird at times for me personally speaking.
And quite frankly, and finally, considering how much bona fide paranormal activity there actually is reputed to exist or to have existed in Sackville, New Brunswick, I do have to wonder why Claytor has not made use of any of this in Nowhere (and that I for one, would have definitely enjoyed encountering in Nowhere Sackville's Marshland Inn and its ghost horses, Mount Allison University's famous ghost Ethel Peake as perhaps Charlie's mother, the uncanny scratching noises emanating from Mount A's tunnels and maybe even the weird phenomenon of common household metal objects projecting radio broadcasts which I myself in fact did briefly encounter in residence at Mount Allison in 1987 when the sink and the refrigerator suddenly started playing music late at night and which was actually due to interference from the intense electromagnetic fields from the Radio Canada International (RCI) shortwave transmitter towers on the Tantramar Marshes outside of Sackville, so nothing paranormal here but still really really strange and freaky).
Three stars for Nowhere, and with my main caveat being that what Jon Claytor textually and visually provides is creepy, is very young adult themed (and that there is also quite a bit of verbal abuse and lots and lots of decidedly vulgar words, of major cursing being textually shown throughout Nowhere).
Review of advance copy
I had a great time with this. I loved seemingly effortless, but somehow highly detailed artwork.
July 3, 2026
Deeply weird, surprisingly poignant, so confusing, very beautiful drawings, probably smarter than me, but so very interesting and creative. I have some kids in the library who will go wild over this.
June 5, 2026
Picked up at the Amazon First Novel Awards after hearing the author read.
Read
August 11, 2026Nowhere is a wonderfully strange, genre-bending debut. Jon Claytor blends horror, comedy, and coming-of-age into a story that shouldn't work as well as it does zombies, demon landlords, and therapy-seeking vampires exist alongside a genuinely tender portrait of a 12-year-old navigating new-kid anxiety and neglectful parents. The illustrations add so much texture and mood, giving Beauséjour a lived-in, unsettling atmosphere that pure prose couldn't achieve alone. Underneath the absurdity, there's real insight into adolescence, isolation, and the particular terror of feeling unmoored in a place that keeps shifting under your feet. It's easy to see why this was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award Claytor is doing something genuinely original here.
June 12, 2026
Dreamy, eerie and funny, Nowhere is about pre-teen Joel and his family who get stranded in the town of Beauséjour where locals ignore a giant and mysterious cube.
The book is about small town loneliness infused with monster nostalgia. I loved the surprising amount of humour and the drawings are gorgeous and distinct.
The book is about small town loneliness infused with monster nostalgia. I loved the surprising amount of humour and the drawings are gorgeous and distinct.
Review of advance copy
2.5
June 16, 2026
Closer to 4 but not a full 4
This was weird, crazy, jarring, enjoyable and comes together amazingly well in the end.
This was weird, crazy, jarring, enjoyable and comes together amazingly well in the end.
June 24, 2026
Very weird but I enjoyed it!
July 5, 2026
Really fun and creative
July 13, 2026
just fine. distinctly rural canadian dismal vibes
August 8, 2026
Oof that was bleak! But also completely relatable and tapped into my memories of growing up in a small town on the decline and growing into a future with constant dread, change and loss. Somehow there’s something comforting in shared mutual experiences though.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews